Among all of the things in my life, since childhood, one habit has remained pretty much constant: Saturday morning cartoons with a bowl of cereal. While the cereal has changed, the cartoons really haven’t; I still prefer old Looney Tunes shorts to anything else. Perhaps it was cartoons like “Rabbit of Seville,” pictured here, that aided me in my enjoyment of European classical music. This particular short features Bugs Bunny as the Barber of Seville, a Rossini opera, with Elmer Fudd as his customer, as they go through various barber-related gags. Even though this one, like “What’s Opera, Doc?” (a take on Wagner) is overtly focused on the music, more often than not the soundtrack plays second fiddle to the comedy. Anyway, they’re terribly funny (often not so PC, I’m quickly learning in adulthood) and a great gateway into this music.
